Whole Foods set to open Katy store Jan. 30

Katy residents will have a Whole Foods Market to call their own starting Jan. 30. A bread breaking event will begin at 7:30 a.m. that morning.

The Austin-based grocery announced the opening date Tuesday.

The 34,000 square foot store is at 6601 South Fry Road and will be the seventh Whole Foods in the greater Houston area.

The Katy store will bring 100 jobs to the area. A job fair will be held on Jan. 2 and 3.

Following the Katy opening, the next local Whole Foods store is slated to open in the Champions area some time in 2014, company spokeswoman Mary Langdon said. The Champions store, at Louetta and Cutten, will be about 40,000 square feet.

The last Whole Foods store to open in Houston was the Montrose location in June of last year.

. . . you can call the location “KATY” if you want, but let’s be honest . . . it’s south of Cinco Ranch, deep in Fort Bend County. While the location may technically be in the city limits of Katy, which I’ll have to verify, you may as well say the store will be in Richmond, Texas . . . makes more sense . . . and if we’re going to do that, may as well say that the mega Whole Foods in downtown Austin is, well, . . . in far northwest Houston . . . .

Whole Foods has reinvented itself over the last decade in quite the genius way. It has become more mainstream in terms of pricing with the introduction of it’s 365 store brand while at the same time retaining it’s commitment to healthier grocery offerings. They are no longer the high-dollar specialty store that they use to be. Gotta hand it to them. May their tribe increase.